The invention relates to a method and a system for controlling at least one actuator of a chassis of a motor vehicle.
A motor vehicle may have a plurality of sensors and actuators. A sensor is therefore respectively designed for the purpose of measuring values of measurement variables that are relevant for operating the motor vehicle. The values acquired by sensors are typically to be processed by a control device of the motor vehicle. On the basis of these values, actuating signals are provided by the control device for the actuator, to which a component of the motor vehicle is applied.
Against this background, a method and system are presented with the features of the independent claims. Further embodiments of the invention will become apparent from the dependent patent claims and the description.
The method according to the invention is provided for controlling at least one actuator of a chassis of a motor vehicle. Values of at least one measurement variable for measuring an environment of the motor vehicle are therefore determined by at least one sensor. The determined values are preprocessed. Furthermore, only those values necessary for controlling at least one actuator, among other things, are determined in a preprocessing of the values. Only those values that are required or necessary for controlling the at least one actuator are transmitted by a sensor-associated control device to a actuator-associated control device. In addition, only the values provided for controlling the at least one actuator are temporally filtered by the actuator-associated control device. Actuating signals for the at least one actuator are provided by the actuator-associated control device from the first preprocessed and then temporally filtered values.
Typically, the environment or a vicinity of the motor vehicle is determined by the at least one sensor using electromagnetic waves, for example, those based on laser, video and/or radar. A height profile of a ground is ascertained here, usually of a roadway that is traveled by the motor vehicle. This acquired height profile can be evaluated with preprocessing provided as part of the method. This may also include the measure to locally filter the values determined by the sensor for acquiring the height profile, for example, by forward-backward filtering or by a sliding weighted average. In addition, typical unevenness of the ground is recognized, whereby such unevenness is specified by means of various methods. Only values for such unevenness that affect continued driving of a motor vehicle are required and used to control the at least one actuator. The at least one actuator can be predictively controlled and/or activated via the thus selected and/or extracted values. In an embodiment, for a comparatively high unevenness along the height profile of the ground, a decision can be made regarding the fact that a structure of the motor vehicle is raised along a future route to be traveled, along which the high unevenness is arranged, whereby the at least one actuator is provided a longer route for tightening a wheel. In an embodiment, only those values for controlling the at least one actuator are selected, the information consists about a recorded comparatively high unevenness along the ground.
Furthermore, the values determined by the at least one sensor are preprocessed by the sensor-associated control device and, for example, are locally filtered there. Furthermore, only certain values from the height profile are selected and transferred from the locally filtered values. Alternatively or additionally, the values determined by the at least one sensor are preprocessed by the at least one sensor and thereby locally filtered or pre-filtered. In a preprocessing of the values determined by the sensor-associated control device and/or the at least one sensor, also only those values, among others, that represent the roadway to be possibly traveled by the wheels can be selected or extracted from all determined values. Therefore, a preprocessing can be performed, for example, local filtering and/or selection, the sensor information to be used in a first step by the at least one sensor and in a second step by the sensor-associated control device. Here, a possibly rough preprocessing of the values performed by the at least one sensor can be subsequently refined by the sensor-associated control device through a more exact preprocessing. In an embodiment, the preprocessing includes a local-filtering and/or detection of unevenness, which is to be considered for controlling the at least one actuator. The local filtering includes a phase-free high or low pass filtering with forward-reverse filtering or filtering with a moving average (moving average filter).